The present invention relates in general to elevators and, in particular, to prefabricated elevator shaft modules for constructing elevator shafts in building structures.
The use of prefabricated elevator shaft modules has the advantages of shortened construction time and lower costs. Disadvantages are the bulky volume of such modules which renders the storage and the transport very difficult, so that the construction cost advantages are partly lost.
Prefabricated elevator shaft modules which are brought to the building site in individual components and are there assembled into a ready module are known. A French patent application No. 2,187,663 describes a prefabricated elevator shaft module which includes all mechanical components as well as the shaft door. This elevator shaft module can be transported assembled as a bulky structure or it can be assembled readily at the building site from supplied individual parts or components. Increased costs due to the requirement for special vehicles to transport the assembled module reduce the construction cost savings and the modules are also subjected to the danger of damage.
The present invention is based on the problem to create an elevator shaft module by which it is possible to achieve a reduction of module volume by a reduction in one of the three linear measurements defining the volume.